ment Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first quIt’s often said that you can’t manage what you don’t measure – one of the most important parts about business is monitoring your organisation’s performance. Traditionally this is done via a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). These usually support the organisations strategy or targets – for example if your business has a target of customer satisfaction you may have a KPI to have less than 1% customer returns made.

Too often, however, management data is produced which just doesn’t assist the business decision process it may just portray a picture or status – This explains your current position but doesn’t provide any detail on targets (missed or achieved) action plans or what should be done about the problems that the statistic is portraying – too often management data doesn’t actually tell you anything at all – metrics are produced as a set of numbers that require interpreting to make use of, such data is often not geared towards either strategic or operational objectives! For management information to make a difference and support the business decision making process – this mindset must change.

An example – say that you were a Procurement Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first que

s – for example if your business has a target of customer satisfaction you may have a KPI to have less than 1% customer returns made.

Too often, however, management data is produced which just doesn’t assist the business decision process it may just portray a picture or status – This explains your current position but doesn’t provide any detail on targets (missed or achieved) action plans or what should be done about the problems that the statistic is portraying – too often management data doesn’t actually tell you anything at all – metrics are produced as a set of numbers that require interpreting to make use of, such data is often not geared towards either strategic or operational objectives! For management information to make a difference and support the business decision making process – this mindset must change.

An example – say that you were a Procurement Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first qu

lains your current position but doesn’t provide any detail on targets (missed or achieved) action plans or what should be done about the problems that the statistic is portraying – too often management data doesn’t actually tell you anything at all – metrics are produced as a set of numbers that require interpreting to make use of, such data is often not geared towards either strategic or operational objectives! For management information to make a difference and support the business decision making process – this mindset must change.

An example – say that you were a Procurement Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first qu

at require interpreting to make use of, such data is often not geared towards either strategic or operational objectives! For management information to make a difference and support the business decision making process – this mindset must change.

An example – say that you were a Procurement Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first qu

ment Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first question - what’s it telling you? - you have a target to consolidate spend so your management reports need to support your decision making process rather than just providing a snapshot – going back to our procurement manager – he’d be better off with a report showing him the actual supplier profile vs the targeted supplier profile – throw in some commodity groupings and % weighting of spend per supplier and we’ve got something useful – straight away we can begin to hone in on the tail end of our supply chain and look at rationalisation options.

There are a number of tools that you can use to ensure that your management information is produced in support of your business requirements.

1/ Rule 1 – make sure that the information being produced is suitable for the audience that consumes it. Think of your management information needs as a three tiered pyramid – at the bottom sits operational requirements of the workforce – in the second tier partially consolidated requirements of management, at the top tier sit the chief Execs and VP’s who consume fully consolidated reports of the whole company performance.

2/ Ensure that your business objec